Get started with Narrator

Narrator is a screen-reading app built into Windows 10. This guide describes how to use Narrator with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update on desktop PCs, providing you with enough info to start exploring Windows, using apps, and browsing the web. It’s written for those who use a screen reader regularly.

To use this guide, choose a link from the following table of contents. When you’re done reading a chapter or appendix, select the Back button in your browser to return to this page and select another chapter. There are also links at the end of each chapter and appendix to go to the next chapter or return to this table of contents.

Following the table of contents on this page is a section about what's new in Narrator in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

What's new

We've made several improvements to Narrator in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

Input learning

To hear the command for each key on the keyboard, press Caps lock + 1 to turn on input learning. When input learning is turned on, Narrator tells you the name of the key and the associated command when you press it.

Scan mode improvements

When using scan mode, pressing the up and down arrow keys now navigates text by paragraph instead of by line.

Scan mode now turns on automatically when you use Microsoft Edge to browse the web. It also turns on automatically for any Windows app where you turned it on before. Likewise, scan mode will turn off for any app where you previously turned it off and will remain off for that app until you turn it on again.

Lastly, scan mode now turns off automatically in edit fields, so you can enter text. Press the up or down arrow again to leave the edit field and resume scan mode.